Space Station

A Long March 7 rocket lifted off Thursday with Tianzhou 1, an unpiloted refueling freighter heading for China’s Tiangong 2 mini-space station to conduct several months of robotic demonstrations, practicing for the assembly and maintenance of a future permanently-staffed orbital research complex.

Top officials from NASA and Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, could decide soon to commit to keeping the International Space Station staffed and flying through at least 2028, four years after the research lab’s current retirement date.

NASA’s lead spacewalk flight director Royce Renfrew talks with public affairs office Rob Navias about the curtailed spacewalk by astronauts Tim Kopra and Tim Peake on January 15, 2016. Although the spacewalk’s major objective to replace a failed voltage regulator was a success, the spacewalk was cut short when a small water bubble had formed inside Kopra’s helmet.

Watch the post-launch news conference from the Kennedy Space Center following the successful launch of an Atlas 5 rocket on December 6, carrying the Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo ship bound for the International Space Station.

A future where mission control can digitally dispatch tools, spare parts and other vital materials to far-flung space crews took one giant leap toward reality when a 3D printer aboard the International Space Station produced a ratchet wrench on demand.

A spherical U.S. Navy spacecraft the size of a beach ball spring-ejected from a new satellite deployer outside the International Space Station last week, debuting a fresh way for low-budget space missions to reach orbit.